Magdalena


There is a new version of the Jesus film, called "Magdalena," told from the perspective of the women in the gospel accounts. It is particularly designed to explain the gospel to women. Last Sunday we had a showing of Magdalena at the church. We put up a poster outside the building the week before and hoped that we would have some visitors on Sunday.

On the day of the showing we set up a video projector in the church building and bought some pastries and made some tea and waited for guests.

The police, however, were doing their best to make sure that no one came to our event. Ostensibly for "our protection," two uniformed officers and one plain-clothes policeman patrolled the sidewalk in front of the building.

Two college-aged young men were on their way in to the building when the police rushed up to them and began asking who they were, what they were doing here, and even where they worked. The police were standing just inches from their faces while they asked their questions. The questioning had the desired effect and the young men turned around and walked away from the church. We asked the police not to be unnecessarily hard on our visitors and one of us stayed outside, mostly to make sure that the police didn't do the same thing again.

A local doctor and his friend were the first actual visitors. They were clearly a little nervous to be in the church and one of them decided not to stay for the film. We decided to start the DVD and just a few minutes into the film another visitor came in and sat down. The police officers also came in to watch the movie, and one of them stayed for almost the entire time.

Ironically, we had no women come to watch.

At the end of the movie it was clear that the doctor had enjoyed it and was interested in talking more about it. The other man who had come in seemed to be a little put off by what he saw in the movie and he thanked us quietly and walked out.

After some tea and conversation with the doctor we invited him to come back for our Tuesday afternoon discussion time. We packed up the projector, cleaned up the church, and went home.

On Tuesday, the doctor did come back. We spent almost two hours talking with him about the gospel, at the end of the time we invited him to come to church on Sunday morning. Today is Sunday and I'll be leaving for church in a little while, hoping to see the doctor there.
...
I just came back from church. The doctor did come back, this time with his brother. He enjoyed the service and promised to be back again. Pray for him, for his brother, and for the neighborhood around our church.

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